Because Grey Matters.

Many of you know that my father-in-law, Jim (Kate's husband), was diagnosed with brain cancer over 13 years ago, 1 year after they got married. Through many procedures, treatments, the help of amazing doctors and nurses at Barrow's Neurological Institute, rehab, and support from countless friends and family members, we were extremely joyful to celebrate Jim's current state of being- he's here with us today. What a blessing. Simply being.

The guest of honor, Jim, and Abby.

When my mother-in-law, Kate, found out about the Brain Tumor Walk held in Tempe, she jumped at the chance to invite as many people as she could to walk in support of Jim and those who are fighting their battle with Brain Cancer, and in memory of those who aren't. She also planned a lovely coffee hour at her home that evening, filled with yummy foods (see the cake below!), great fun, and amazing music sung/played by Kate, Gavin, and some of their dear friends who have been singing in coffee houses with Jim and Kate for a long time.

The cake.

Kate, singing "the Pal song" to Jim. It was incredibly touching ;)

Many of the people there have been there from the beginning of this long journey- sometimes disheartening, but also many times of triumph and joy and hope. I, for one, have only known this family as one that is surviving and growing in spite of this disease and the changes it has forced upon their dynamic. Having watched this family make their way through this, I am still utterly amazed, awed, and inspired at how resilient people can be and how really, no matter what, they rally around as much as they can, putting their faith in God that He will see them through.

Just some of Jim's many fans and supporters.

Nana Kate and Abby.

Kate and me, sporting grey.

Me and my wonderful family!

It was a wonderful night. A night full of hope, joy, thankfulness, and love. I am so glad that I was there to witness the love and affection everyone had for Jim. What a way for God to witness to us that He has a plan, one we may never understand, but one none the less. He tells that He never promised it would be easy, it would only be worth it. I just want to end this post with one of my very favorite scriptures, one that brings me so much peace and hope in God is this,

"I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." - Phil. 4:13

So it's been awhile...sorry :(

I really would like to apologize for lapsing on my posts (there really is no excuse, but I'll try anyway...). We get busy. Is that good enough? Maybe not? How about, "I was trying to get ready for the 1st quarter to end, and be away from my classroom right before on a business day, plus taking care of a child who is now on her 9th round of croup."? You'll settle...I truly appreciate it ;)

To be honest, nothing super exciting or worthy of some magnificent revelation has happened since I last posted, but I'll share what I can rummage up:

1. My 29th birthday. It was a blast! We had some of our awesome and amazing friends over on Friday night and had yummy food and drinks. And I must give major credit to my darling hubby for organizing the treats with my girlfriends. You can see the beautiful (and delicious) cake my friend Holly made for me. It had daisies, my FAVORITE, thanks Hol!

2. Julian's 4th birthday. What a great kid to share my birthday weekend with! He had such a great time with all of his fun cousins and friends- pinata and all ;)

Me and my little cousin, Greggy- he's a firefighter in a far-off, distant land...

If you look carefully, you can see the worm my daughter spotted (it's to the left of her sucker).



Here is Julian, holding the worm ;)

This is Abby and Julian examining the worm after moving it halfway across the yard.
They decided he must not have been happy where he was before...


"Woo Hoo! You've got a worm!"

Abby & Maeleigh: These girls are trouble!!!

What's a little football when you are in HUGE yard!

Hello, down there!

3. Round 9 of croup with Miss Abby. Never fails, October weather settles in and I begin to count the days into the month until I hear that distinctive bark, I mean, cough... this time we made it 6 days into the month- woo hoo! Oh well, it doesn't scare me anymore, it really is a way of life for us throughout the months of October through March :( I woke up at 2:07am on the dot to one, count it, ONE barking cough and knew that we were in for it. At least it was before Fall Break and not during it so we could enjoy our time together more!!! This time, her doctor even prescribed a nebulizer for us to keep at home so no more trips to Urgent Care for a breathing treatment in the middle of the night- I am sure on some level you can understand why this is so exciting and such a blessing for us. If you can't, well, thank your lucky stars! So anyway, all of you gambling folks out there...Kyle and I are taking bets as to how many times Abby gets croup this winter. Is that terrible? Maybe so, but we need to find the humor in it somewhere...Please keep her in your prayers ;)

She wasn't too sure about this...

...but she's a pro now!

4. Fall Break!!! Does that say it all? It should ;) Sadly, I do not have any pictures of how I spent my first few days of Fall Break. It was amazing, seriously, I'm not kidding. I don't know if I have an illness in my head or what, but it is the one break I really look forward to because I know I get to CLEAN MY HOUSE!!! There is nothing like the satisfaction you get from scrubbing your house from top to bottom (except blinds and our 'junk room'- not touching that one with a 10 ft. pole without Kyle's help!). I did it all (again, with the exception of those said items listed above): baseboards, door frames, the faces of the doors, moved couches and cleaned the floors beneath them (oh how embarrassing it is when your husband asks if the dust you are holding in your rag is chinchilla hair- nope, just plain ol' dirt honey), moved some pictures around, donated a car load of stuff to Goodwill...I really could go on and on, but it is just simply beautiful, and SOOOOO satisfying ;) How long do you think I can keep my husband and daughter tied up to keep it this way?

I HAD to add a picture of my favorite cleaning agents!!!

(from the left: Holy Cow Glass Cleaner, Holy Cow All-Purpose Cleaner, Orange Glo- for wood, and my NEW favorite...Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day in Geranium scent!!!).

Tools of the trade: a small Clorox scrub brush, a microfiber washcloth, and a pet hair remover ;)

Anyhow, enough about my craziness ;) The 2nd half of Fall Break will prove to be more fun to 'normal' people like you- hanging out with the cousins, getting our ceilings textured (what? that's not fun to everyone?), and camping with our friends. I'll post pictures of that later!

Ciao! 'Til next time (which won't be this long...)

It was a BIG weekend for Miss Abby!

This weekend was jam-packed with fun (and some work)!

On Saturday, Daddy and I built Abby's BIG, big girl bed (we called her toddler bed her 'big girl bed'). That, in and of itself, was a trip to see.

It was a true testament to my darling husband's patience- with me...

You see, one of my wonderful co-workers gave us their daughter's older bed when they bought her a new one. It is SO cool- it has a slide! Anyhow, from said reasons above, it did not come with instructions. We were on our own (cue the scary music)...

After getting one side all nice and tight, I took a look at it and sighed a heavy sigh, telling Kyle I believed we messed up and it needed to go on the other side. He didn't bat an eye (although he did mention that he thought we did it right the first time...) and got right to work switching the pieces.

Needless to say, after attaching BOTH pieces now, I stood back and looked at the puzzle of the bed and realized that I was wrong (remember this statement always, I don't usually admit when I'm wrong, especially in print!) and sighed an even heavier sigh than the one before. This time Kyle just looked up at me with knowing eyes, waiting for me to say what he already knew I was going to say. "I messed up. Sorry!" were the words out of my mouth. He just silently shook his head and started unscrewing things...

After a much longer time than needed be, here is the end result:

Abby was SO happy! I think that made it all worth it in the end ;) Thank you, honey, for being far more patient with me, than I often am with you. I could stand to learn a lot from you ;)

Snow Excursion (what?!?)...

So our darling daughter, Abby, came out one evening last week, informing us that she was, in fact, ready to go to the snow.

And she was.

Well, almost...you see, she had almost all of the appropriate attire for snow weather: warm fuzzy hat, sweater, and mittens...and of course, pink, fuzzy slippers ;)

What she was missing was pants (which, when prompted to go get some pants on as well, she came out with these hot, pink shorts- at least they matched!) and of course, snow...

How do you explain to a 2.5 year old that we are in the middle of a SCORCHING summer, and we are in the middle of a desert? Thankfully, due to the minute length of a 2.5 year old's attention span, we were spared any tears or arguments as she quickly moved on to something else ;)

Please Pray...

I am so sorry to have to even post this, but I believe prayer works and it works in numbers. I am asking anyone who reads this post to please pray for my cousin Dana, her husband Rene, big brother Noah, but most importantly, their twin boys, Liam and Reed, 4 weeks old. Both boys have been hospitalized recently with an unknown cause (last information I received) and they believe that Reed may have had a stroke, because he shows no movement on his left side.

No one could even begin to imagine the nightmare they are going through right now. I'm just asking with everyone to keep these little boys in your prayers...thanks.

What to do on a rainy evening...

What? It rains here? Believe it or not, yep...then it gets humid ;)

So Monday proved to be a bit spontaneous in the Dosil household. My dear hubby is not what I would call a 'baker', although I'm sure he would disagree and tell you that his cookies from a tube are highly qualified enough to be considered real baking ;)

Shortly after he came home from work and finished dinner, I observed him milling around the kitchen. Not sure what he was doing, I figured he wasn't making any noise, or a mess, so I let him be ;) Then he started to ask me where things were. Things that belonged in cookies. So I went in to investigate.

Sure enough I saw that he had a collection of ingredients on the counter (although when he asked me what the difference in our two flours were, I noticed he had taken out the whole wheat kind and swiftly replaced it with the regular, white kind). I also noticed he had mentioned using our Smart Balance spread instead of checking for butter in the freezer...oh boy.

My darling husband, Kyle, getting it all together...

I moved in. So did Abby once she heard the word 'cookie'.

Abby and Daddy once she took her place in the kitchen ;)

Once she took her position on the counter (thanks Melynda!), she began helping Daddy make yummy, chocolate chip cookies. Since I was, of course, photographing the event, which it was (an event, that is) , I was not paying attention to Kyle's method of mixing ingredients- which is "Throw everything in the bowl at once, regardless of directions, and have at it." I made him scoop as much flour as possible out and follow the directions.

Mixing some of the ingredients together...

She's just too precious...

Rolling the dough into balls- a daddy habit ;)

Getting ready for the oven...

Licking the dough off her hands ;)

Man, oh man, guys don't like following directions, or being told to follow the directions- even in the kitchen ;)

Abby and Daddy's 1st homemade batch of cookies- YUM!



Intermission- getting ready for bed

Despite some minor recipe directions infractions, the cookies were saved and I must say, it really looked like he and Abby were having a good time! They turned out very yummy and it was an utter joy watching this fun Daddy/Daughter evening ;) Especially tasting their goodies!

Ready, set, COOKIES!!!

Umm...good ;)


Finishing every, last bite!

I love my family.

Happenings In Our Household...

My darling husband and I have been living in our home for almost 4 years (Abby joined us almost a year after we moved in!) and in short, simple words, my dad has so eloquently named our house, "The Money Pit"- if you've ever seen the movie, you'd understand ;)

When we bought our home, we tore into right away, thinking we had lots of time (and $$$). Then we found out we were having a baby- YEA!!! Hmmm, I wonder if this is why I want to start finishing some of our many unfinished projects...disclaimer: the following statement is one borrowed from another Blogger friend- I.W.A.N. (I Want A Newborn). Can't help it...it's finally hitting me after almost 4 years ;) You can read her blog from my link, Life. Find it, she says it perfectly (thanks Shawni!).

Anywho...here's the list of projects either begun and not finished or ones that I just prefer to be done before we have any more cherubs joining us in the Dosil Domain:

1. Finish painting our master bath (completed 8/21/09)

2. Lay quarter round by the fireplace (completed 8/22/09)

3. Lay quarter round by the kitchen cabinets- only because I can't get new ones anytime soon...that's one of our last To Do's on the 'list' (completed 8/22/09)

4. Lay baseboards and hang a doorframe in the AZ room.

5. Hang a doorframe, and paint it, on our french doors.

6. Lay baseboards in all 3 bedrooms.

7. Caulk all the new baseboards.

8. Hang a closet door in the master bedroom- this one requires help.

9. Switch electrical in our laundry room to another wall- another one that requires help.

10. Take out a wall in our laundry to open it up, then repair the drywall.

11. Paint the laundry room.

12. Lay flooring in the laundry room.

13. Install shelving or cabinets (or both) in the laundry room/pantry.

14. Texture living/family room ceilings- again, another one that needs assistance.

15. Paint the above mentioned ceilings.

16. Tile master bathroom shower.

17. Tile master bathroom floor.

18. Install recessed lighting- paying someone to do that!

*19. Get new carpet in bedrooms- paying someone to that too!

*20. Laying pavers in the backyard- paying someone to do that as well!

*21. Getting new kitchen cabinets- we can probably do this ourselves (my uncle is a master carpenter), but it costs a lot, so it's officially last on the 'list'.

* items will likely not be done before anymore subsequent children. I'd be 45 before I got to have anymore if that were the case ;)

WHEW! I'm tired just typing this list out! Is it possible that this list going to change and evolve? Most likely ;) But, rest assured, while it seems as though we have a lot to do...I really just break things down into each step something requires because I feel MUCH more successful when I can physically cross something off my list. I do that with cleaning too. Doesn't it feel so much better to cross off, like, 10 things from a list of what you cleaned, rather than just "clean the house"? Um, I think so! I know it's all mental, but, well, I don't care ;)

Here are just a couple of pictures as we begin our many "fun" family projects. Enjoy and cheer us on!

Abby is helping us measure the base of the cabinets.

Here daddy is, checking Abby's work...

Abby gave up actually doing any work and moved on to supervising.

Not sure how she feels about it, but it seems as though she disapproves...